Method of fabricating combination panty hose garment

ABSTRACT

The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment having a panty portion with integrally knit depending leg portions comprising the steps of knitting elongated seamless hosiery blanks, positioning one hosiery blank in another blank at least in the waist portions for alignment, severing the blanks longitudinally to a crotch position in the panty portion of the garment, and sewing the blanks together in the waist portions to form the panty portion of the garment. An apparatus having a hosiery supporting form in juxtaposition to a member through which one or more stockings may be mounted for nesting together.

United States Patent Bryant [54] METHOD OF FABRICATING COMBINATION PANTY HOSE GARMENT [72] Inventor: Elba II. Bryant, Ararat, NC.

[73] Assignce: Amos and Smith Hosiery Company, Pilot Mountain, NC.

I22] Filed: June 16,1969

[21] Appl. No.: 833,362

I52] 11.8. CI. ..2/224 R, 223/43 [51] Int. Cl ..A41b 9/00, A4lb 11/00 [58] Field of Search ..2/224, 224 A, 227, 239, 243, 2/238; 66/177, 176, 171; 128/580, 524-529;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Re25.360 3/1963 Rice ..2/224 [4 1 Feb. 15,1972

2,766,709 10/1956 Stevens 12/63 3,128,475 4/1964 Rice et a] ..2/224 3,449,932 6/1969 Fillmore et al.. .....2/224 X 3,450,075 6/1969 Bridgeman ..1 12/136 Primary Examiner-H. Hampton Hunter Attorney-David Rabin [57] ABSTRACT The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment having a panty portion with integrally knit depending leg portions comprising the steps of knitting elongated seamless hosiery blanks, positioning one hosiery blank in another blank at least in the waist portions for alignment, severing the blanks longitudinally to a crotch position'in the panty portion of the garment, and sewing the blanks together in the waist portions to form the panty portion of the garment. An apparatus having a hosiery supporting form in juxtaposition to a member through which one or more stockings may be mounted for nesting together.

8 Claims, 16 Drawing Figures m|l ll II FIG.7

- PAIENTEUFEB 15 m2 3.641.569

SHEET 1 OF 2 FIGA . 4| FlG.l

FIGS

F IG.6

FIGB

FIG.9

INVENTOR. ELBA H. BRYANT o florney PATENTEBFEB 15 I972 SHEET 2 OF 2 I NVE NTOR ELBA H. BRYANT ahorney METHOD OF FABRICATING COMBINATION PANTY HOSE GARMENT BACKGROUND AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The ever increasing demand by the consuming public for combination stockings and panty garments or panty hose has caused many manufacturers to investigate and develop more economical and faster methods for producing such garments without jeopardizing the quality of the fabricated garment. Usually the panty hose garments are made from elongated seamless knit hosiery blanks with either. torque or other suita ble textured nylon or other suitable thermoplastic yarns. The elongated seamless knit blanks are slit from a waistband section longitudinally to a crotch position or location, and two blanks that have been similarly slit are aligned and sewn together either with or without a reinforced crotch section. Representative of only some of the types of panty hose garments are US. Pats. No. Re. 25,360 and No. 3,344,621.

It has become increasingly important to reduce the number of times the individual stocking components are handled by an operator in order to reduce cost and particularly to minimize the picks and pulls that occur from excess handling of the sheer blanks. Presently, circular knitting machines are equipped with attachments'for automatically closing the toe on the knitting machine although such attachments are not widely used in the industry at this time. The toe portions of hosiery blanks for use in the manufacture of panty hose garments as well as seamless stockings have the toe portions closed by a seaming or sewing operation using overedge seaming machines of conventional construction. Additionally, some manufacturers still loop the toe portions closed on conventional looping equipment.

The present invention has for its primary objective the economical and expeditious assembling of a pair of elongated seamless knit hosiery blanks in a nested position to facilitate severing of portions of the panty section and sewing the pair of blanks together while in a nested condition to avoid needless and frequent handling of the blanks. The individual blanks may either be toe closed on the knitting machine, toe closed during inspection preliminary to fabrication of the garment, or toe closed during inspection and fabrication of the garment as will be the most expeditious depending upon the type equipment available.

It is further contemplated that an apparatus for facilitating the inspection and assembly of a pair of elongated seamless knit blanks may be utilized for supporting one or more of the blanks during preliminary fabrication and prior to severance of the panty portions and sewing the blanks together.

This invention further contemplates a method of fabricating elongated seamless knit blanks, portions of which are knit with torque or textured yarns, in which the blanks are assembled or nested together in at least the panty portion of each of the blanks, and aligned suitably for severing from the waistband section to a crotch position and seamed together to fonn the panty portion of the combination panty hose garment. The toe portions of the individual blanks may have the toe portions closed either on the knitting machine or subsequently on a seaming machine depending upon the preferred sequence of operations employed in a particular plant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Many of the attendant advantages and other objectives of this invention for fabricating combination panty hose garments and an apparatus for facilitating the assembly of hosiery blanks will become more readily apparent from a detailed description of a preferred embodiment, with alternates being disclosed hereinafter, and from the drawings of a preferred embodiment, in which drawings like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

FIG. I is a front perspective view of a combination stocking and panty garment or panty hose garment of the type fabricated utilizing the method of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of an apparatus for assembling and combining elongated blanks to facilitate the method of this invention;

FIGS. 3 through 9 are schematic illustrations of a sequence of steps illustrating an assembly of a pair of blanks;

FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of a pair of nested blanks positioned relative to a sewing machine having a fabric slitting attachment;

FIG. I1 is a partial perspective view of the upper portion of a panty hose garment having been slit in the waist and panty portion thereof and seamed partially;

FIG. 12 is a partial perspective view of a panty hose garment having a portion of the panty seamed and positioned preliminary to seaming of the other portion of the panty;

FIGS. 13 through 15 are perspective views illustrating schematically the sequence of operations for everting a panty hose garment made from two elongated blanks and removing one leg portion from another; and

FIG. 16 is a front perspective view of a panty hose garment on a pair of spaced-apart boarding forms.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF INVENTION Referring to the drawing and particularly to FIG. 1 there is illustrated a combination stocking and panty hose garment 20, commonly referred to as panty hose, in which a pair of seamless knit, abnormally elongated stocking or hosiery blanks 21 and 22 is secured together in the panty portion 23 of the blanks preferably by a single continuous seam 24 that extends from the elastic waistband 25, in the rear of the garment, downwardly longitudinally through the panty portion to a crotch position 26, and upwardly in the opposite side or front of the panty portion of the garment to the waistband front portion 27 securing together each of the individual blanks 21 and 22. In some garments, a reinforced crotch patch may be provided, if desirable.

The depending stocking or leg portions 28 and 29 of the blanks are integrally knit with the elongated welt or panty portions 30 with each of the leg portions being provided with foot and toe portions 31 and 32, respectively. The depending leg portions 28 and 29 of the blanks 21 and 22 are preferably knit of torque or other textured yarn to impart stretchable characteristics to the knitted fabric. The panty portion 30 of the garment is also preferably knit with a heaver denier torque or textured yarn to impart stretchable properties to the knit fabric. Panty hose are presently being made of either torque nylon yarns or crimped nylon yarns in order to achieve the desired stretch characteristics, but the various methods of fabrication of panty hose garments disclosed are not restricted or limited to such yarns. The elastic waistband portion 25 may be integrally knit with the blank during the knitting or a suitable stretchable knit or woven waistband may be affixed by seaming to the garment panty portion using one of the conventional procedures presently being employed.

In one preferred sequence of procedures for fabricating the panty hose garment 20, the seamless elongated blanks 21 and 22 are knit on a circular knitting machine, preferably with the elastic waistband portion 25 being integrally knit with the blank by laying-in stretchable yarns of rubber or elastomeric yarns in accordance with procedures well known in the art. The blanks 21 and 22 after being knit are discharged from the knitting machine with the right side" of the fabric being on the outside or the exterior of the blank. The right side of the knitted fabric has a smoother surface than the inside, reverse or wrong side of the fabric. It is quite well known and determined that by placing the surfaces of two fabrics with their similar or right sides in contiguous or surface-to-surface contact, there will be substantially fewer picks and pulls of the yarns in contrast to two fabrics in which their wrong sides are placed in contiguous relationship or when one fabric with its right side out is placed against the wrong side of another fabric.

In order to simplify the method of fabrication of panty hose, the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 had been designed and adapted to assist in assembling a panty hose garment in several of the initial procedures. The base supporting platform 34 has mounted at one end thereof a manifold sleeve and support housing 35 to which is attached a centrifugal exhaust fan 36 that is driven by the electric motor 37 mounted to the housing of fan 36. A horizontally extending hosiery blank-receiving cylindrical sleeve 38 is cantilever-mounted by suitable means on the housing and support member 35 in spaced vertical relation to the base platform 34. Cylindrical sleeve 38 has a longitudinal axial opening or interior 39 communicating with housing 35 and fan 36 with the open terminal end cooperatively receiving one or more hosiery blanks for elongation in the interior 39 of the sleeve 38. The interior 39 of the sleeve 38 communicates with the centrifugal fan 36 which will induce a flow of air through the sleeve interior of sufficient velocity and magnitude to induce a blank to attempt to flow in the airstream in the interior 39 with the air being exhausted to the atmosphere through the discharge line 40. A substantially flat blank-everting and inspection board 41 is cantilevermounted to the housing 35 in spaced juxtaposition to the sleeve 38 with the board 41 convergingly tapered to the rounded terminal end 42. Sleeve 38 and board 41 should be free of scratches and nicks to prevent any picks, pulls or other damage to a sheer knitted fabric when a blank is drawn over one or the other or both of the surfaces of the sleeve 38 or board 41.

It has been found desirable in one preferred sequence of steps in the fabrication of panty hose to position an overedge seaming machine adjacent to the free ends of the sleeve 38 and board 41 to enable an operator to seam closed a toe opening 43 of a blank in the foot portion 31 in the event the knitting machine is not equipped with an attachment for closing the open toe of a blank automatically. A first blank 21, with an open toe portion 43, is placed on the board 41 by drawing the uncut panty portion 30 on the board 41 so that the blank is everted from the right side out, as received from the knitting machine, designated as R0, to the wrong side out, designated as W as shown in FIG. 3. After the blank 21 is drawn over the board 41 with the wrong side out, the open toe portion 43 is presented by an operator to an overedge seaming machine 44 for closing the open toe portion 43 on a conventional overedge seaming machine, as shown in FIG. 4. The blank 21 is displaced, after closure of the toe portion, from off the board 41 initially by guiding the toe portion into the open end of the sleeve 38 positioned below board 41. The elongated blank 21 will be extended in sleeve 38 with the wrong side out and the right side in, and a short portion 45 of the panty portion 30 will be turned outwardly over the end sleeve 38 to support and retain the blank in position, as shown in FIG. 5. With the blank 21 in the position in sleeve 38 as shown in FIGS. and 6, a second blank 22 is drawn over both the sleeve 38 and the board 41, and everted from the right side out to the wrong side out. The second blank 22 having an open toe portion 46 is closed on the seaming machine 44 after the second blank 22 is drawn, at least partially, over the sleeve 38 and board 41, as shown in FIG. 7.

After completion of the toe closure on the second blank 22, the second blank 22 is inserted and positioned into the first blank 21, assisted by the suction induced in sleeve 38 by the fan 36. By everting blank 22, the right side surface of blank 22 is positioned contiguous to the right side surface of blank 21 already within the sleeve 38. As the second blank 22 is drawn in the sleeve 38 and removed from the board 41, the second blank 22 is positioned and aligned with the first blank 21 in a nested or telescoping condition, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. A short section 47 of the waist portion 30 in the second blank 22 is turned back over the similar section 45 in blank 21, as shown in FIG. 9, thereby forming a single unit 48 of two nested blanks 21 and 22 with their right sides facing each other.

The nested or assembled unit 48 may thereafter be presented by an operator to an overedge sewing machine 49 of the type produced by Merrow Machine Company, such as model M-4D-45 or the equivalent, in which there are fabric severing blades 50 for cutting the fabric as the fabric is advanced to the sewing instrumentalities 52.

The nested unit 48 of two blanks 21 and 22, with aligned waistband portions 25, is fed to the overedge seaming machine where the waistbands 25 and the panty portions 30 are severed longitudinally through the waistband 25 to a crotch position 54 in the panty portions 30 0f the blanks. As the knitted fabric is cut or severed, four slit edges 51 will be formed (only two being shown in FIG. 11) but when the knitted fabric is advanced to the sewing instrumentalities 52, two overlapping edges will be seamed together to form the partial seam 53 as shown in FIG. 11 in one machine operation. The seaming will proceed from the waistband portion 25 through the panty portion 30 to the crotch position 54 joining one blank 21 to the other blank 22. The incomplete panty hose will be manipulated and seaming will continue in order to join the free slit edges 51 on each of the blanks 21 and 22 thereby joining the blanks together and forming the completed panty portion 23 of the panty hose gannent 20. The completed seam 53, as shown in FIG. 12, extends to the crotch position 54, in FIG. 11, while in FIG. 12, the seam 53 extends throughout the panty portion of the garment forming a substantially U-shaped continuous seam. If desirable, an operator may form half the seam as shown in FIG. 11, from waist to crotch, and then reorient the incomplete gannent and seam the remainder from waist to crotch on the other side joining the seams in the crotch, as opposed to a single continuous uninterrupted seam.

In an alternate procedure, the individual elongated blanks 21 and 22 may have the open toe portions closed automatically on a circular knitting machine provided with an automatic toe closing attachment thereby eliminating the necessity for the toe closure sequences heretofore described being performed as the blanks are positioned on the sleeve 38 and the board 41. The individual toe closed blanks 21 and 22 may be placed on the board 41 then in the sleeve 38 for retention awaiting the presentation of the second toe closed blank thereby eliminating the seaming operation shown in FIGS. 4 and 7.

A further additional alternative procedure in the sequence of operations is contemplated wherein the individual blanks may be toe closed off of the knitting machine whether on a seaming machine or looping machine. The toe closed blanks may then be handled by eliminating the intervening toe closure operations as shown in FIGS. 4 and 7, as described above in conjunction with toe closed blanks completed on a circular knitting machine. It will be readily apparent that the objective sought to be achieved is the nesting or positioning for the blanks at least in the panty portions thereof for alignment preliminary to the cutting and seaming operations which may be performed successively or simultaneously.

The seamed together unit 48 may be placed with other similar units before or after seaming in dye bags and dyed at this time or at a subsequent time after the garments have been everted. As shown in FIGS. 13 through 15, the everting operation is performed using an everting stand 55 that is provided with a pair of upwardly extending inverted U-shaped rods 56 and 57 that are laterally spaced from each other for cooperatively receiving and everting the seamed together nested unit 48. The waistband 25 and panty portion 30 of the garment are placed over the upper ends of the rods 56 and 57 and the garment is drawn downward vertically thereby evening the garment and withdrawing the leg portion of the blank 21 from the leg portion within blank 22 with the right side of the fabric in blank 21 being slidingly withdrawn from the right side of the fabric 22, as shown in FIG. 14. The assembled panty hose garment 20 is shown fully extended in FIG. 15 prior to subjecting the garment to heat treatment for boarding or shaping of the garment.

The everted panty hose garment may be dyed with other similar garments in the event it has not been previously dyed. After dyeing and moisture extraction, the assembled garment is then placed on a pair of elongated panty hose boarding forms 58 that are laterally spaced from each other. The boarding forms 58 with the panty hose mounted thereon is then placed with other panty hose into an autoclave and subjected to an elevated heat-setting temperature for boarding in a conventional manner to impart the desired contour or shape to the garment when desirable. In those instances when unboarded garments may be sold, the boarding operation may be eliminated. The garments are ready for final inspection and packaging.

It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that the precise sequences may vary considerably and such variations are contemplated including variations in the abutment of the fabrics depending upon the nature of the knitted fabric and the tendency to pick and pull when placed together. Modifications are also contemplated in the structure of the apparatus including separation of the board 41 and sleeve 38 to facilitate maximum access to an operator.

lclaim:

l. The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment having a panty portion with integrally knit depending leg portions comprising the steps of knitting elongated seamless fabric blanks having toe, foot, leg, welt and waist portions, positioning one blank in another blank at least in the waist portions for alignment by supporting one of said blanks in substantially elongated form and inserting the other of said blanks into said one blank with opposed surfaces being contiguous, fabric surfaces that are contiguous being similar, severing the aligned blanks simultaneously longitudinally to a crotch position, and sewing the blanks together adjacent said severed waist portions to form the panty portion of the garment.

2. The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment as claimed in claim 1, subjecting the panty hose garment to a dyeing solution.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the blanks are cut and sewn simultaneously in one machine operation.

4. The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment as claimed in claim 1, and everting at least a portion of said panty hose garment by removing one nested portion from the other to have said leg portions depend from said unified waist portions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of knitting the blanks includes closing the toe portions on a knitting machine.

6. The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment as claimed in claim 1, and boarding the panty hose garment by subjecting it to heat treatment.

7. The method of claim 1 including the step of sewing the toe portion of one of the blanks before said one blank is positioned within the other blank.

8. The method of claim 7, and further including sewing the toe portion of said other blank before said one blank is positioned within the other. 

1. The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment having a panty portion with integrally knit depending leg portions comprising the steps of knitting elongated seamless fabric blanks having toe, foot, leg, welt and waist portions, positioning one blank in another blank at least in the waist portions for alignment by supporting one of said blanks in substantially elongated form and inserting the other of said blanks into said one blank with opposed surfaces being contiguous, fabric surfaces that are contiguous being similar, severing the aligned blanks simultaneously longitudinally to a crotch position, and sewing the blanks together adjacent said severed waist portions to form the panty portion of the garment.
 2. The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment as claimed in claim 1, subjecting the panty hose garment to a dyeing solution.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the blanks are cut and sewn simultaneously in one machine operation.
 4. The method of faBricating a combination panty hose garment as claimed in claim 1, and everting at least a portion of said panty hose garment by removing one nested portion from the other to have said leg portions depend from said unified waist portions.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of knitting the blanks includes closing the toe portions on a knitting machine.
 6. The method of fabricating a combination panty hose garment as claimed in claim 1, and boarding the panty hose garment by subjecting it to heat treatment.
 7. The method of claim 1 including the step of sewing the toe portion of one of the blanks before said one blank is positioned within the other blank.
 8. The method of claim 7, and further including sewing the toe portion of said other blank before said one blank is positioned within the other. 